Coherent States – CS-31
Three years after the danceable field recordings of her "L'Ange Le Sage"
debut LP, the Parisian sound artist, activist and musician Gaël Segalen
delivers her third album, "Sofia Says", picking up where her "Memoir of
My Manor" cassette stopped. Gaël adopts a persona, Sofia, and through a
third person dissociation she presents a dynamic sample of her
compositional psyche, creating a compelling mixture of abstract noise
experimentations, field recordings and ecstatic electronic manipulation.
This ensemble of sonifications, made of augmented/edited improvisations,
oscillates between the individual and the myriad, between chaos and
wisdom. It first depicts collective organization, with a mass of
creatures coexisting and populating spaces voluntarily, through a will
of celebration, as in "Like Warehouse" where sounds resonate, or like
the tribute referred to in "Cortege". Natural sounds surface through
synthetic and rhythmic sonic masses, the essential presence of the
living. There are voices emerging from this album, signals that are
suddenly raised - invitation, alert, incantation, exhortation. Like
traces and awakening marks, that of birds, taking back the abandoned
hangar in the morning after a warehouse party, that of watchwomen and
men who call for vigilance during gatherings in need of remaining close
together. That of whistles, voice call outs, chants, multiple bells,
train rail hammering, wheels that come and go, appear and disappear.
Shifting from collective vision to that of personal determination,
polylistening allows for the desire of detachement, elevation, seeing
the light as well as multiplicity and singular choices on coexisting and
dialogue.
"Mountain" - both east and west slopes - offers a different view. From a
height, we hear incantations about the observation of the masses and
displacements and the harmony that can derive from them. Large, flying,
isolated creatures or clouds move in timelapse, progressing together or
moving apart in accelerations, time jumps, multiple gaits.
There's often a lull at the end of the pieces. "I see you" marks the
epic told by Sofia, the oracle, the priestess. In a final whirlwind, in a
lament, this is a hymn to love, passion and noise and to the mechanics
and cadences of life itself, born from chaos which, before leading to
"Horizon (Harp pt.2)", the bonus track, dissipates into the ether and
open questions.
Gaël Segalen has been a genuine explorer of sound for more than 20
years. Besides her record label accreditations and her diploma in
electroacoustic composition in the lineage of the GRM (Groupe de
Recherches Musicales), she has worked for Radio France Internationale,
as a sound mixer for film, before jumping onto many sound art
psychogeographical projects under the name of IhearU and multimedia
collaborations such as with artists Constanze Ruhm, Marlies PöschI, Shu
Lea Cheang, also participating in various compilations, audiowalks,
radio productions, online platforms, installations, while travelling the
world to collect voices and inspiration for her musical compositions,
and giving classes on sound to explore it's therapeutic dimension, using
it as a social tool to interact with diverse audiences. She has played
and engaged sonic conversations among others with, Joachim Montessuis,
Jean-Marc Foussat, Best available Technology, Aki Onda, Brandon LaBelle,
duenn, while she maintains the experimental electronic project Les
Graciés with Eric Douglas Porter (Afrikan Sciences). She is also
co-founder of Polyphones, a Parisian network dedicated to women in
musical experimentation, and OWO, the electronic Open Women Orchestra.